Apocalypse How

Mark 13:1-8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

Mark put this "little apocalypse" in his Gospel for a people who lived in a time where they felt that only God, physically breaking into their world, could put things right.  God breaking into the world… that, by the way, is the real meaning of an apocalypse and you know what?  I think I understand a bit of what they felt… only God breaking into our world could possibly make things right again.   

I wonder if the people Mark wrote to had a perpetual churning in their bellies.  I’ve still got one.  If you’ve still got one too, well, I can at least tell you you’re not alone.  I wonder if the people Mark wrote to felt profoundly disappointed with people they had counted as family and friends who had decided to abandon doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God in exchange for power, influence, or the promise of lower prices at the store, even when that meant endangering their friends and families' lives?  I still feel profoundly disappointed this Sunday in people I formerly counted as friends and family… so if you still feel that way too.  I get it!  If you are not yet to the point of hope, it’s okay.  The thing about this story though, is that Jesus told the disciples then and is telling us disciples now, “All of THIS is just the birth pangs!”  Which, frankly Jesus, I don’t find very helpful. 

The disciples wanted to know, how long, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind an answer to that one either!  But the disciples then didn’t get an answer, and we won’t be getting one today either.  What Jesus gives, both to the disciples then and to us today, is an invitation to begin really living again… RIGHT NOW… right where we are… right in the middle of what feels like the end of the world… right in the midst of a time where we can’t imagine anything less than God breaking into the world could possibly make things right.  A quote attributed to Martin Luther says, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”  And one attributed to Winston Churchill says, “If you are going through hell, keep going!”  Those too, are invitations to REALLY LIVE, even in the midst of darkness… even in the depths of feelings of betrayal, worry, and fear.  Today, I’m not ready to do that yet myself, but I see what Jesus is doing here and I know I’ll be ready soon, so it would be good to know.  So, okay Jesus, how do we do that?

Because moving from being devastated to wanting to plant an apple tree isn’t that simple.  God created us to react automatically and unconsciously when we feel threatened!  We’re hard wired to react that way!  It’s a good thing too!  God made us so that our stomachs would automatically relocate into our throats when we get too close to the edge of a cliff!  God did that so we wouldn’t just walk off the edge in blissful ignorance!  Without that stomach churning gift from God, aliens would visit earth just to find a giant pile of caveman bones at the bottom of some chasm and humanity extinct!  It’s a really good gift!  So the real question is … HOW?  How are we to move through those God given, automatic reactions to the threats we now face and beyond our very real sense of profound disappointment and betrayal?

The answer however, does not begin with the “HOW” it begins with the “WHO” and it is that WHO that has shown us HOW.  Jesus’ whole life was a lived-out instruction manual for HOW to live this life into an abundant life, even when that path takes us through hell along the way.  The WHO and the HOW… they MUST be taken together.  To focus only on the WHO creates people who say the right words, create lovely worship, and loudly proclaim their faith but do not live out the HOW of loving God and neighbor that Jesus showed us with his life.  That’s why we have so many people who look and sound like Christians, but live and work and vote for things that are literally anti-Christ.  The WHO and the HOW must be bound together to be genuine Christianity. 

Jesus didn’t lie to the disciples and I’m not going to lie to you either.  It’s dark out there and I’m as certain as Jesus was then, that it’s going to stay dark longer than any of us would like.  So the take home today… is don’t put off living, waiting around for some distant apocalypse to fix it all!  Instead, the way through hell really is to keep going!  The HOW to walk though hell is by following the Jesus Way… walking through life, living, acting, voting, working, and doing everything else the Way Jesus showed us to do life… with generosity, compassion, grace, sacrificial love, justice, and peace.  Walk the Jesus Way through the fascist darkness.  Walk the Jesus Way through climate darkness.  Don’t just talk it.  Walk it!  Walk the Jesus Way through racist, homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic darkness. Walk the Jesus Way all the way through hell and keep on walking until we find ourselves and all of creation finds itself bathed in the light.

The other HOW Jesus showed us with his life, is in the power of gathering and living and working in Christian community.  Jesus’ community wasn’t big.  Many of them, particularly the guys, weren’t especially quick on the uptake either.  But what they were… was PRESENT.  Yeah, there were a couple of hiccups there at the end, but by and large they were there, together, with Jesus and with each other.  So, find your community.  REALLY dedicate yourself to that community and then follow this mashup advice from St. Paul and Winston Churchill:  “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and when the world feels like hell, for God’s sake, keep walking!  Amen.

Our Last Two Cents

Mark 12:38-44

As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

The Gospel lesson for this week SEEMS to be all about money AND with today being our annual stewardship ingathering day AND having had speakers talk about their favorite hymns and how they inspire them to be generous to Christ Trinity… it might SEEM as if all of this was perfectly lined up months ago so that today I could hit you with the money sermon.  There are a few problems with that way of thinking.  First, I have never been good at being sneaky… even good-sneaky.  Isn’t that right Kelly?  Second, these days, although I LOVE planning things ahead, I have found planning ahead almost impossible to do these day for lots of different reasons.  And FINALLY, the reason this really isn’t a giant pre-planned conspiracy designed so that I could preach about money today is… This lesson isn’t about money.  It’s got a couple of pennies in it, but beyond that?  Not about money.

Jesus, watching from across the street, says to his disciples, “See, that widow?  She just gave WAY more than the rich folks, because for those rich folks, what they gave didn’t pinch at all!  They won’t ever feel it!  They’ll live just as well after they gave as before they gave.  But that widow… she’s finished!  Not just finished for this week mind you!  Remember, there’s no check in the mail.  She’s given EVERYTHING she had!  Forever!  She gave HER ALL.

Jesus points to that widow and tells the disciples they should pay attention to her, because what she did there… THAT is to be their model… and our model for how to live into the dark and terrifying times that lie ahead.  She wasn’t to be their model (or our model) for how to fill out your pledge card or put money in the plate on Sunday.  No.  When Jesus points at that widow, and says, “Do THAT!”  What he’s saying is do THAT with your WHOLE life!  THAT… giving all you got, after all, is what Jesus was in Jerusalem to do himself.  He was about to give everything he had on the cross.

That’s what this lesson’s really about today.  It’s about looking right into the darkness that lies ahead and giving our all into that darkness.  That poor widow doesn’t hedge her bet.  She hasn’t stashed some cash under the mattress for a rainy day.  She gives it all!  She gives the money that would have kept her alive, at least for a little bit longer.  She gives her life.  She puts her WHOLE life in God’s hands, trusting that in some unforeseeable way, the God who brought the people out of Egypt through the sea on dry land and brought to life an entire valley of dry bones will give her a light to walk into and through any darkness that she might face.

  

Today’s first lesson drives home that same point with another widow.  She was asked to give the last bit of bread she had to some stranger.  Her plan had been to bake the last, little, pitiful, loaf.  Eat it with her son, and then just wait for both of them to starve to death.  Into that situation a guy shows up with the chutzpah to say, “Why don’t you give ME your last bit of food?”  And for whatever reason… whether it was faith, shock, or she simply had no more… we’ll say “cares” to give… for whatever reason… she gave all she had. 

 

The idea that people might actually dare to give their all to something as insane as loving God and loving neighbor without condition… the majority of the country around us has voted this week to proclaim THAT idea… loving God and loving neighbor… to be JUST as foolish as putting your last two cents into the offering plate or baking your last bit of bread to feed some random foreigner off the street, or coming to Jerusalem when you know Jerusalem is actively working to kill you!  

 

But what the majority of our country has voted as foolish?  That is EXACTLY our call for this time of uncertainty and darkness that lies ahead.  THAT is our call… As individuals and as a church community.  To give God and our neighbor our all!  To give away our last two cents.  To give away our last piece of food to a stranger.  To come here each week… each of us bringing what we have… even if what we have feels as insignificant as a tiny ball of wax.  Because here, we'll gather and mold those insignificant, tiny balls of wax into a candle, and that candle will send a pin prick of light out into the darkness of this world.  AND when we inevitably find that giving it our all one week has not fully eliminated hatred, bigotry and violence in one fail swoop… when inevitably see that the light we crafted last week did not fully end racism, trans & homophobia, misogyny and all the rest.  We won’t throw up our hands and give into despair and hopelessness.  NO!  We'll look at where it fell short, come together and collectively indulge in a few moments of creative language practice, then we come to this altar and fed with the Bread of Life… and then, fueled up for the week to come… we'll figure out together the way we’re going to love God and neighbor in the week ahead and go at it one more time… giving it our all one more time… giving all the life we’ve first been given… giving all that we have.

That’s our call.  To give our all in love… to God through our neighbor.  We are called to give it our all… toward God’s vision of a world without war, a world without hate, a world without hunger, pain, or fear.  Our call is to give it our last little cake.  To give it our last two cents.  To give it our whole lives, trusting in God’s love and promise that God will always be with us… filling our empty jars with meal, our empty jugs with oil, our empty hearts with love, and our empty souls with hope.  Amen

Holding Two Opposing Truths

John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

One of the most annoying things about this life of ours is that two seemingly mutually exclusive things can still be true at the same time.  We have a great example of that annoying reality right here in today’s Gospel.  First we have the truth… the full on, genuine truth, that death is NOT more powerful than God!  That is truth.  Lazarus is raised, unbound, and let go!  The OTHER truth, which is just as fully true, is that death still happens!  Lazarus died and stayed that way for four days which is the Bible’s way of telling us he wasn’t just faking it.  So, God is more powerful than death AND death still happens.  UGH!  I hate it!  

We find the same super annoying phenomenon of two seemingly mutually exclusive things being true at the same time happening here in our world THIS WEEK!  The first truth is that the same God who has conquered death… THAT is OUR God… so no matter what happens this week with this election, how it is contested, what violence might ensue, or what the future of our country might be... NO MATTER WHAT… THAT God who has claimed each of us in Baptism with unconditional and irreversible love… THAT God will always be with us, through anything and everything, and in the end… THAT God will raise each of us from death into new life.  

So that’s the first truth we have to hold onto this week.  The God who is stronger than death is OUR God.  However, AT THE SAME TIME, we are all experiencing another full on, genuine truth, which is that we are all currently living with a mountain of very real, and absolutely understandable, overwhelming anxiety.  It is the anxiety of facing the possible election of a man who invited a comedian to open his rally in Madison Square Garden last Sunday by saying that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” and joked about Black people carving watermelons instead of pumpkins for Halloween!  Other speakers at that rally insulted Latinos generally, Black Americans, Palestinians, and Jews.  Then, as if that were not enough already, Trump’s advisor Stephen Miller claimed that “America is for Americans and Americans only” which directly echoed the statement of Adolf Hitler that "Germany is for Germans and Germans only.” 

Both God being more powerful than death AND our collective election anxiety are VERY real truths AND we are all having trouble holding them together today.  God’s unflinching love and Gods unwavering presence in our lives on the one hand.  Genuine racist, Nazi rhetoric from a presidential candidate in the other.  I know that I for one, am having just as much trouble holding together those life and death truths that face US this week, as Mary and Martha must have had holding together the life and death truths that they faced in this Gospel story!  It is so hard in fact, that I feel like I might just explode at any second!  Does that just about cover it for you?  I thought it might.  

So how do we make it through a week like we have coming up? How, in any situation, do you hold two radically different truths together at the same time?  Maybe, on All Saints Sunday, we need to look to the couple of Saints in this story who did that same impossible task.  So, how did Mary and Martha manage it?  Well, they yelled at Jesus.  They wept.  They gathered with others from their community... they openly and angrily questioned WHY it had to be like this, freely expressed their utter disbelief that it could possibly get better, and finally there was some prayer.  

Mary and Martha have given us Biblical permission to do any and all of that ourselves as we face anything in life that demands we hold things together that just shouldn’t go together.  We too can yell at God!  We too can gather and weep and openly question how we could have possibly gotten to this place and time.  We can voice our disbelief that we can ever move past this self destructive and horrifying time, and we can pray.  

NONE of what Mary and Martha did stopped Lazarus from dying and for us, NONE OF THAT will stop this week from being what it will be.  BUT it does give us permission to walk into the week ahead fully expressing and loudly sharing ALL of the emotions we will feel.  It reminds us that we have every right (and Biblical permission even) to yell at God at the top of our lungs about this time and these truths we are facing and say, “THEY STINKETH!”  They full on, dead four days in the desert heat, STINKETH! 

It also reminds us that we should not try to do these sorts of weeks alone.  Not taking out our anxiety ON one another but feeling free to share exactly how we feel WITH one another. Our emotions and feelings are a gift from God.  It is healthy to share the entirety of that gift in the week to come, with one another.  Sharing THAT truth will help give each of us room to continue to also hold the OTHER completely genuine and immutable truth of this moment… that somehow, in some way... a  way that seems impossible to even imagine right now... particularly hard to imagine for those so demonized in this campaign… but SOMEHOW God WILL call out to us in our present darkness and God’s call WILL unbind us from all the stinking bonds we've been bound in for way too long...  slavery, genocide, hatred, racism, misogyny, fascism, trans and homophobia, lies, deceptions and evil.  And with God's Call, WE WILL COME OUT and WE WILL LIVE AGAIN in the light!    Amen.  

Lies and the False gods Who Tell Them

John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus says here that when we continue in his word… in other words, when we live our lives the Jesus Way and walk through life on the path of love, compassion, inclusion, generosity, and grace… the WALKING of that path is what makes a person truly a disciple.  When you walk through life THAT way, you will discover the truth.  And the truth is, THAT way of walking makes you free.  Jesus goes on to let us know that when we DON’T walk the Jesus path, we inevitably end up walking a path of hatred, cruelty, exclusion, crudeness, and selfishness… a path that then traps you, imprisons you, and enslaves you in a life without dignity, purpose, or meaning.  

500 years ago Martin Luther discovered that although this truth from John’s Gospel was clear to him, the regular people who sat in the pews were lost.  They had been so confused and manipulated over the years that Luther felt the need to go back to the very beginning to teach this truth.  For him that meant starting with the life-walking-path God first laid out… the Ten Commandments.  He did that by preaching hour long sermons. You’ll be relieved to hear… I ain’t doin’ that today or any day!  Instead, let’s just look at a couple to get a feel for how the commandments are meant to guide us walking the Jesus Way.

Luther’s method was to lay out the commandment:  “You shall have no other gods” is the first one. Then he would ask rhetorically, “What does this mean?” Then he’d give his answer, “We should fear, love and trust God above all things.”  If you look at Luther’s Small Catechism you’ll see he starts the explanation to every commandment with “We should fear and love God” so we need to get straight from the beginning that Luther isn’t telling us we need to be SCARED of God.  God loves us without limit and without condition after all.  Instead, Luther’s trying to remind us that we need to always keep in mind the unmatched POWER of God… the All Knowing Nature of God… that when it comes to knowing what is best for humans, God literally wrote the book!  No one else even comes close, which is why when people suggest they know a better way than God’s way, it always leads to problems.

In the summer of 1934, Dorothy Thompson, who at the time was writing for the Saturday Evening Post about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis was suddenly expelled from Germany.  When asked why she had been expelled she said, “My offense was to think that Hitler is just an ordinary man, after all. That is a crime against the reigning cult in Germany, which says Mr. Hitler is a Messiah sent by God to save the German people…. To question this mystic mission is so heinous that, if you are a German, you can be sent to jail.  I, fortunately, am an American, so I merely was sent to Paris. Worse things can happen….”  

Breaking this first commandment happens when a person either elevates themselves or others elevate a person to a place they suppose is equal to or even superior to God.  Breaking this commandment happens when people dismiss or distain GOD’S guidelines for living in this world (these ten commandments) and adopt or promote a different way… their own WAY.  That is why whenever any of the other commandments are trampled, this first commandment always gets trampled as well in the stampede.

Let’s use, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” as an example of how that happens.  Luther asks, “What does this mean?”  He says, “We should fear and love God, and so we should not tell lies about our neighbor, nor betray, slander, or defame him, but should apologize for him, speak well of him, and interpret charitably all that he does.”

The sin doesn’t just stop with the lie itself you see, because in telling the lie… the lier is insisting that they have a better way of living (lying) than the way God has laid out for us to live (telling the truth).  Now, lying isn’t exclusive to politics, but our current political climate makes for some ready examples.  Lying, as Hannah Arendt tells us, leads the followers of those telling the lie into a cynicism where they begin to actually admire the tactical cleverness of using lies!  With that admiration, the liars continue to lift up lies as a better WAY, a better Truth and a better LIFE than God’s Way and their followers then begin walking the path of lies themselves.  And there it is!  A leader who has set themself up as having a better path for people to walk than the path God and Jesus call us to walk and then insisting their followers walk their path, instead of God’s.  Lies are never good, brazen lies are worse, and lies that lead others down a path where they end up running roughshod over all the other commandments inevitably leads to greater and greater horrors in our world. 

So if you continue in Jesus’ word… (in other words) if you continue to walk the Jesus Way… the Way of God’s Commandments (which Jesus summed up as loving God and loving neighbor)… that means you are truly Jesus’ disciples; in the walking you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.  For those who continue in another person’s word?  For those who walk and promote a path other than the Jesus Way?  The person selling that alternative path is not only lying to you but is also telling you they know better than God.  THAT, my friends, is not the way, the truth, or the life and… IT IS NOT SO AMONG YOU!  Amen.   

Against Hate, Fascism, Nazis, and Tyranny

Mark 10:35-45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

You know that among the Gentiles (those outside of the faith), those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and the ones they call “great” are tyrants over them… But it is not so among you.  IT IS NOT SO AMONG YOU!  

Tyrants are as old as the ages.  In Jesus’ day the Roman Empire was ruled by tyrants who in turn found local rulers who were more than willing to lord their power over the people with threats, violence, and fear.  That doesn’t sound like something that would be very popular, but on the contrary, Jesus tells us that much of the world out there believes that tyrants are actually the greatest kind of leaders.  Jesus, however, tells us… those who do our best to cling to the faith… to walk through this world on the Jesus Way… Jesus tells us that when it comes to embracing the ways of a tyrant… IT IS NOT SO AMONG YOU!

Martin Niemöller came to stand against Hitler, the Nazis, fascism, and the Third Reich in their tyranny.  He would say that in hindsight he was slower to stand against them than he should have been, but in the end, he recognized it all for what was, and confronted that tyranny in spite of the consequences.  His preaching and his actions reflected the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel for his time: “You know that among the Gentiles, those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them… BUT IT IS NOT SO AMONG YOU! 

Decades ago, as I really began to dig into these words of Jesus and the stories of Niemöller in seminary… people who dared to confront the tyrants of their age, I was in awe of what they did… in awe of their faith… in awe of their courage.  I thought, way back then at the close of the 20th century, that should anything like that ever happen on my watch, I hoped that I too would do the right thing… the scary thing, yes… but also the faithful thing… the courageous thing.  Back then though, it seemed to be a thought experiment.  A hypothetical.  Not something that would happen in real life!   

But now, here we are.  What we are facing today is no mere thought experiment and it is more exactly like what Niemöller stood against in his day than I ever thought remotely possible.  This past week saw swastika flags at a Trump rally in Florida and no one at that rally lifted a finger to take them down.  As someone on the internet said, “Remember: if you go to a rally and there is even a single Nazi flag that no one is demanding the removal of, you are at a Nazi rally.”  That unthinkable reality is born out in Trump’s words as well.  He has embraced the Nazi play book, dehumanizing entire groups of people to give his followers a group of “others” to hate.  Remember Martin Niemöller’s famous poem… In his time the targeted “others” were socialists, trade unionists, and Jews.  In our time it is Mulsims, brown and black people, and immigrants. 

The would-be tryant of our age is doing EXACTLY what Niemöller ended up regretting speaking out against in the moment... when speaking out mattered most.  This candidate for the office of President of the United States is telling his crowds that all their problems are because of these “others”.  He is saying that they, along with their Democratic accomplices, must be rounded up, deported, or executed, with the help of the military.  This language is directly from the Nazi playbook.  He now promises that he alone can save the country from the people he is actively de-humanizing by calling them “animals,” “stone cold killers,” the “worst people,” and the “enemy from within.”  This is nothing less than a full-throated embrace of Nazi “race science” and fascism.  General Mark Milley, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and certainly no flaming liberal) agrees.  He says “Trump is the most dangerous person ever… I realize he’s a total fascist… A fascist to the core.”

Those words from Jesus about the ways of tyrants should be ringing out loud and clear from every pulpit… from every deacon, priest, pastor, and bishop, lest they find themselves on the other side of this time in history needing to confess, “I didn’t speak out for them and eventually there was no one left to speak for me.”  These words of Jesus from today’s Gospel, should be preached and proclaimed as clearly and firmly as Jesus spoke them to the disciples… as clearly as they must have rung in Niemöller’s ears!  These words of Jesus that we read in today’s Gospel must be made to ring in our ears and be shouted from our mouths in these days, because for those of us who strive to follow Jesus… for those of us who do our best to walk the Jesus Way through this life we have been given… That way of Tyrants… That way of fascism… That way of endless lies, endless hate, endless violence and endless fear … THAT WAY IS NOT SO AMONG YOU!  IT IS NOT… SO… AMONG… YOU!  

I know I am preaching to the choir.  But this moment calls for all of us to do more than simply preach to our fellow converts.  This moment calls for all of us to proclaim from the rooftops and make clear to the entire world, that although tyranny is an option on the ballot… for followers of Jesus, the way of tyranny is not so among you.  Amen.

  

Note:  I will not tell anyone who they should vote for or against.  I will speak against the sin of lying, fascism, hate, racism, oppression, and tyranny.  

22 Days

Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Jesus said, it’s easier for a real, live, long necked, large humped, vomit spitting, 1300 lb. dromedary to go through the eye of a standard No. 5 sewing needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.  Some folks like the idea  that the “Eye of the Needle” is actually the name of a gate in Jerusalem that you can get your camel through if you just unload all the stuff it is carrying.  Maybe.  But I suspect Jesus was being more hard-core than that.  I think Jesus was talking about both, a real three quarter ton “ship of the desert” camel AND a literal, tiny sewing needle.  So the question remains… how will we get THAT camel… through THAT needle AND how are we going to do the thing Jesus says is HARDER THAN THAT, which is to get rich people (who, if we’re honest, is ALL of us)… how are we going to get all of US into heaven?

We can assume the rich, young man in this story had tried all the usual ways.  He had tried to PAY to have his camel pushed through.  He’d tried to be good and virtuous enough to EARN his camel passage through.  I’m sure he had born the guilt and shame he thought might get his camel through.  He might have even tried to lie and say, “We have the greatest camels and we got them all through.”  No matter what he tried, in the end he found… you can’t do it.  YOU can’t get your camel through the eye of a needle and YOU can’t get yourself into heaven.

 

You see, he was (like us rich folks usually are) used to solving problems on his own.  He had jumped over countless challenges and been successful without any help.  Whether it was his money, talent, privilege, experience or a combination of all of the above, he was used to… convinced even… that HE could tackle anything the world might throw at him BY HIMSELF.  You can see that in the way he asked the question of Jesus, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?”  What must I DO?  

Jesus knew, that because he had been successful in so much relying ONLY on himself, it would be almost impossible for him to believe there was anything he could NOT do by himself.  Jesus told him, “To get your camel through the eye of that needle you’ll need to GIVE UP.  Give up the idea that YOU can make it happen.”  This guy had never given up!  All his success had been built on the fact that HE could make anything happen.  So he turned his back on Jesus and walked away to keep looking for a way that HE could buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme, or lie HIMSELF into an inheritance of eternal life. 

In this parable, Jesus is asking us to believe what that rich, young man just couldn’t:  That for mortals, it’s impossible to buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme or lie yourself into eternal life… but it is not impossible for God.  For God ALL things are possible… it’s possible for God to pull a 1300lb. camel through the eye of a No. 5 sewing needle.  It is EVEN possible for God to pull the likes of you and me through the needle’s eye of death and into eternal life.  

But wait, there’s more!  For God it’s not only POSSIBLE to do all that… but as it turns out for us… God’s already done it!  God’s reached through the eye of that needle that we call the Cross of Christ, grabbed hold of you and me, and whether we like it or not, God’s even reached through and pulled that rich young man through as well.  God, in fact, has pulled ALL of creation through, from death into life.  And if God can do THAT… then… well, what other completely hopeless, terribly frightening, totally impossible thing for YOU to fix, turns out to be something that God can handle without even breaking a sweat? 

So, what is one, horrible, anxiety flooding, sleep depriving, totally out of your control thing that you find yourself facing today?  Hmmmm?  I wonder?  Golly, what could it be?  Maybe something, I don’t know, let’s just pick a random number… how about something maybe, oh, I don’t know… 22 days away?  Anything?  Any worry?  Anything out of your control?  Well, if you come up with something let me know.  In the mean time though, for us mortals… the first take home from this sermon is that ALTHOUGH… YOU OR ME trying to get ANY of those hope stomping, joy trampling, justice wrecking camels that we might think up later through the eye of the needle is soul crushingly impossible… NONE OF IT!  NONE…OF…IT... is impossible for God! 

That was SO hard to believe for that rich young man that he went off sad and alone and the second take home from this sermon is THAT might very well have been his BIGGEST mistake.  Because, here’s what I want you to remember over the next 22 days at least (remembering this for more days would be better, but we can start with just 22).  What I want you to remember is that when we face the impossible, one of the reasons God has given us one another is so that we can get together and remind one another that when we face the impossible GOD HAS…. GOD IS…. AND GOD WILL… do whatever needs to be done… including pulling what appears to be hopeless, horrific, and dead, through the Cross of Christ and into eternal life.  Let’s all do our very best NOT to go off alone in these next few weeks but to gather here in these next 22 days so we can remind one another that God really does have the whole world, in Their Loving, Divine, Hands, okay?  Okay.  Amen.